KfW IPEX-Bank and SocGen finance completion of Hornsdale Wind Farm in Australia
KfW IPEX-Bank and Société Générale (SocGen) are financing the third and final construction stage of Australia’s Hornsdale Wind Farm. The two banks had jointly provided the long-term borrowed funds for the first and second construction stages in 2015 und 2016. Phase 3 will see the project in the south of the island continent finalised. Once its 99 Siemens wind turbines are in place, Hornsdale will have a total installed output of 309 MW. It will generate over 1.200 gigawatt hours of green energy each year – approximately enough to meet an equivalent of 210,000 Australian households’ demand.
The project owners for the third construction stage are French energy company Neoen, one of the leading businesses in the renewable energy sector, and Megawatt Capital, a local developer headed by Mark Schneider, the former head of development at Investec, first sold the majority of equity in all three stages to Neoen and then sold its remaining equity to John Laing after achieving Financial Close. In addition to supplying the turbines, German manufacturer Siemens will also be responsible for building the wind farm and for all project work associated with it. Siemens will also provide maintenance of the wind farm under a long-term operating agreement. The overall investment costs of the wind farm financed by KfW IPEX-Bank and SocGen amount to AUD 750 million.
Hornsdale Wind Farm may be the first renewable energy project in Australia to reach financial close with a highly competitive non-inflating long term cost of energy. So the renewable electricity supply contract of Hornsdale Wind Farm stage 3 includes a fixed 20-year rate of $73/MWh. ACT government will be the off-taker for the green electricity.
